Golding's View Of Humanity In Lord Of The Flies

Mankind is filled with malice, and the evil is simply inescapable.The Lord of the Flies is a novel by William Golding about a group of British boys, who are stranded on an island after their transport plane is shot down. The boys attempt to establish order and authority in their group, by mimicking the aspects of modern society. However, as time passed, the boys are haunted by the idea of a “beast” inhabiting the island and overcome with fear, the boys begin to revert to savagery. As their makeshift civilization began to fall apart, the darker side of human nature, controlled by savage impulses, was revealed. The novel reflects Golding’s childhood and time as a naval officer, experiences that ultimately shaped his view of humanity. Golding

By being directly involved in the war, he was aware of the struggles for power and the bloodshed committed to maintain that power. For example, in the midst of Germany’s economic hardships, Hitler came to power by promising protection and a stronger government. Golding recreated this idea of dictatorship through Jack. While the beast was“running loose”, Jack utilized fear to his advantage, promising the boys protection and stronger leadership in his tribe if they submitted to his authority. At the time, Hitler’s rule revealed that to maintain power, the Nazis did not hesitate to eliminate any threats to their rule, even at the cost of thousands of human lives. In the same manner, Jack did not hesitate either in resorting to bloodshed in order to stay chief. After an argument with Ralph, “Viciously, with full intention, he [Jack] hurled his spear at Ralph” (Golding, 163). Unlike before, Jack had the intention of landing a fatal blow on Ralph, because of his opposition. He simply wanted Ralph killed and was willing to commit the murder himself. The lack of humanity during Hitler and Jack’s rise to power and their willingness to mercilessly kill to maintain authority reveal the undeniable evil in humans and how man is single-minded. During World War II, Golding witnessed these cruelties, allowing him to realize the defects in human

Golding believed that in the same way that bees are mindlessly driven by their instinct to make honey, humans’ basic instincts are rooted in evil. Growing up, Golding was a victim of abusive outbursts, which later led him to engage in violence himself. In the Lord of the Flies, he redescribes his feelings of bloodlust during the mock pig hunt, in which the boys in the novel brutally beat Robert. During his service as a naval officer, Golding witnessed the atrocities of war and realized the evil within man that allowed him ruthlessly kill. In conclusion, Golding incorporated his opinion on humanity, which was greatly influenced by his own life events, into the Lord of the Flies through the novel’s theme that humans are inherently